Esports tournament organiser LVP’s new ‘fearless’ format for its Iberian Cup 2022 knockout tournament is refreshing, but the fact it had the guts to make a wild change should be particularly noted by other TOs, writes Dom Sacco in this opinion piece
The Iberian Cup is an annual League of Legends tournament that usually features a mix of 16 teams from across Spain, Portugal and Italy.
As with most esports tournaments, it usually consists of a group stage then a knockout phase. It’s a cup that breaks up the regular league seasons.
However, for this year, organisers LVP are doubling the team count to 32, and making some wacky and wild changes to the format, as highlighted in this Iberian Cup 2022 format overview article.
The competition has dropped its group stage in favour of a direct elimination format straight from the round of 32. Lose a match and you’re out. However, all matches will be best-of-threes, with the semi-final and final best-of-fives.
Most interestingly, teams won’t be able to pick champions they’ve already played in a particular series. So, the five champions they pick in the first map won’t be available for the remaining maps.
On top of this, in the semi-finals and final, there will be a blind selection phase on the fifth map of the series, so the teams will choose their champions without knowing their rival’s.
It’s an exciting, refreshing change, and one that has got the community excited.
Meg Kay, a writer for Dexerto, said: “The Iberian Cup will be using the fearless format (no champions repeated in a series) and blind pick game 5? Sign me the FUCK up.”
Giants Gaming’s UK head analyst and assistant coach, Lorcz, also added: “I must make finals, love this place!”
He was also referring to the location of the LAN finals – PortAventura World – which takes place on November 19th, around one month after the Iberian Cup gets underway on October 17th.
“The Iberian Cup gives any team in Spain the opportunity to face the professional teams that make up the Superliga and the Superliga Segunda El Corte Inglés,” said Jordi Soler, CEO of LVP.
“This year we wanted to bet on an explosive format, with no margin for error, and one that will be a lot of fun for the viewer. In addition, we have prepared a very special final in an environment as magical as PortAventura, where we will surely experience an historic match.”
Jordi Soler, LVP
Several others expressed their interest and surprise over the tournament format, and what I love about all this is that LVP isn’t afraid to upset the apple cart.
People don’t always like change, and with the popularity and power of social media nowadays, it’s easier for communities to express their discontent and get things changed. That’s fine, but it probably also makes tournament organisers and companies less confident to shake things up and try new things. Heaven forbid you’d do anything to change a UK CSGO LAN format or make a wacky seeding format, lest you incur the wrath of a very vocal playerbase.
But if we keep sticking to the same old formats, esports can feel a little stale. I’m not saying change the format of a European Regional League every single year. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but for one-off tournaments, annual cups and showmatches, why not try something new every now and then?
It’s not the first time LVP has tried something different. Those who’ve been in UK League of Legends esports for a few years now will remember the tower format of the UKLC, back when LVP was running the official UK LoL tournament circuit (with the tower featured in the logo below).
Each week teams attempted to scale the UKLC tower by going head-to-head in a best-of-one knockout tournament. The team that climbed highest then got to face the previous week’s tower champion. If they won, they became tower champions, gaining bragging rights and championship points.
Opinion was divided over this format, and we did end up seeing the same few teams at the top each week, but I welcomed the change – and it got the community talking.
It is odd that the Iberian Cup doesn’t feature Portuguese or Italian teams this year, and that drew some negativity from pockets of the community, but looking solely at the format, it’s brilliant, it’s spicy, and I look forward to watching it.
The reason why the Portuguese and Italian teams are not participating is because of the new Riot Games ERL regulations, which state: “Teams need to participate in their region’s Pro-Am and won’t be able to participate in more than one Pro-Am.”
Esports News UK understands LVP would have invited Portuguese and Italian teams if not for this rule.
I would love to see some UK tournament organisers get fearless and try something new with their esports tournaments in the future too.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
